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Big Blue Planet

Featured on June 1, 2010

An infrared view from the Keck Telescope shows details in the atmosphere of Uranus, the third-largest planet in the solar system. In optical light, Uranus looks like a featureless blue-green marble, because methane in its upper atmosphere absorbs red wavelengths of light. Infrared peers through the methane haze, revealing belts of clouds plus bright storms that extend high above most of the surrounding clouds. These two views show the eastern and western hemispheres. They also reveal Uranus's narrow rings. [Lawrence Sromovsky, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison/W.M. Keck Observatory]